Despite two years of soaring prices, North home-buyers spend among the lowest percentages of their salaries on mortgages in Britain, claims research out today.

Mortgage lender Cheltenham & Gloucester said anyone buying a house now would have to spend an average of 33.4pc of their salary on mortgage repayments - &#xA3;33.40 for every &#xA3;100 they earned.

But the figure is only slightly higher than the &#xA3;28.60 for every &#xA3;100 earned that would have been taken up by repayments in 1999, before the current boom started, and well below the &#xA3;71.30 per &#xA3;100 they would have spent in 1990.

Two people buying a house together now would spend just 17.2pc of their joint income on a mortgage, compared with 36.7pc in 1990.

The group said property also remained affordable for first-time buyers, with people buying a house on their own spending an average of &#xA3;33.50 on their mortgage for every &#xA3;100 they earned - nearly half the &#xA3;65.30 they spent in 1990.

People buying their first home as a couple now find mortgage repayments take up an average of 18.8pc of their income, compared with 33pc in 1990.

Jon Pain, managing director of C&G, said: "Despite rapidly rising house prices, today's very low interest rates, along with modest earnings growth are holding affordability stable." The South-East is the least affordable area of the country, with mortgages taking up an average of 43.7pc of buyers' take-home pay, followed by the South-West at 40.6pc and London at 37.4pc.

The most affordable property is to be found in Scotland, where mortgage repayments account for just 23.5pc of people's income, while in Wales they take up an average of just 24pc and in the North they take up 25.1pc.